Al Sadaka 6-2 Al Salmiya

In an important semi-final played at the Panasonic Sports Complex with the winner set to join the elites of Asian futsal in Nagoya, Al Salmiya stunned the Lebanese by scoring two early goals but the Lebanese fought back to enter into the finals.

“As I said earlier, we needed it (qualifications) very badly because we have been working for this tournament from quite a long time,” a visibly ecstatic Al Sadaka coach Hussein Dib told www.the-afc.com.

“We were stunned in the beginning after conceding two early goals but we dealt comfortably with the problem by closing the gaps.

“We knew this Kuwait side have limited options so they applied a ‘press’ and ‘press’ strategy in the beginning and were rewarded with two goals but we knew that we have the capability to score goals.

“Now after this qualification our next target is to continue our brilliant run in the tournament by winning the final tomorrow,” he added.

Al Salmiya’s Brazilian import Sidnei Mauricio Fernandes scored one and created one to Salem Almekaimi as they were 2-0 up inside first five minutes of the match.

But Sadaka brought the match at 2-2 level before the half time with Moustafa Serhan’s 15^th minute and Serbian Predrag Rajic’s 17^th minute goals.

The Lebanese were in total control in the second half where they added four more goals to make it look like a comfortable win.

“It was not a comfortable win at all but we had a better luxury of squad rotation than the Kuwaitis so we played the entire match with same energy,” the winning coach Dib said.

Serhan’s second in the match in the 29^th minute put Sadaka in lead for the first time in the match and they added two more during the Powerplay opted by Salmiya’s Brazilian coach Paulo Cesar. Karim Abou Zeid scored Sadaka’s sixth with seconds remaining.

Goals

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